Personality, Incorporated

Have you always wanted to know how and why corporations became so enamoured of the Myers-Briggs? My dissertation and current book project, Personality, Incorporated, explores the uptake of personality tests in management and how psychology—and our psychological capacities—got framed in the language of human capital. My dissertation, “Personality Incorporated,” (2018) examined how management consultants and psychologists developed psychological testing and training techniques to measure and elicit, psychological skills amongst an emerging post-war management class. These management practitioners claimed that cultivating the psychological capacities of corporate workers—their capacity to motivate themselves, think intuitively, and work in teams—would garner economic returns for the corporation and emotional fulfilment for the worker. The full dissertation is available here!